Peggy Shannon, right, and her attorney Gloria Allred attended a rally calling for the resignation of San Diego Mayor Bob Filner. Shannon is one of 16 women to accuse the mayor of sexual harassment.
— K.C. Alfred / UT San Diego

Peggy Shannon, left, and her attorney Gloria Allred attended a rally calling for the resignation of San Diego Mayor Bob Filner. Shannon is one of 16 women to accuse the mayor of sexual harassment.
— K.C. Alfred / UT San Diego

Attorney Gloria Allred speaks at a rally calling for the resignation of San Diego Mayor Bob Filner as her clients U.S. Marine Katherine Ragazzino, left, nurse Michelle Tyler and Peggy Shannon, right look on. Ragazzino and Shannon are two of ...
— K.C. Alfred / UT San Diego

Peggy Shannon and her attorney Gloria Allred attended a rally calling for the resignation of San Diego Mayor Bob Filner. Shannon is one of 16 women to accuse the mayor of sexual harassment.
— K.C. Alfred / UT San Diego

With that, the 49-year-old accountant from Carmel Valley signed a recall petition at Balboa Park. Dozens of runners followed Torre’s lead, seeking out Michael Pallamary, a land-use consultant and the recall’s co-chairman.

“I’m not working the crowd,” said Pallamary, who wore a “Recall Filner” T-shirt. “They are coming to me.”

For recall supporters, Sunday was anything but a day of rest. With 39 days to collect 101,597 signatures from registered city voters, they began circulating petitions at 12:01 a.m. in the Gaslamp Quarter and collected 80 to 100 signatures in one hour. By sunrise, they greeted long-distance runners and gathered what they said were roughly 500 more signatures.

At noon, they trained volunteers in the ballroom of a Mission Valley hotel. By midafternoon, about 800 started a rally outside City Hall, where celebrity attorney Gloria Allred led chants of “Bob Must Go!” They then marched through downtown San Diego, waving signs — “Bob Feel-Her Must Resign” — and stepping to a bagpipe’s whirling strains.

Yes
6% (44)

No
94% (679)

On Sunday night, recall coordinators said they needed more time to give an estimated total of the day’s collected signatures.

For the besieged mayor, the news wasn’t all bad. A smattering of Filner supporters braved the rally and waved banners (“Mayor Filner: Three More Years”).

And some of Filner’s most prominent critics are ineligible to sign these petitions. John Cox, a lawyer who said he donated “five figures” to the recall campaign, lives in Rancho Santa Fe. Allred is based in Los Angeles.

But there were people like Ben Katz, 38, a volunteer who is designing the recall campaign’s website.

“I voted for Filner. He seemed closest to where I stand on the issues and I thought he would do good things for the city,” Katz said. “But he’s a sexual predator. He has no business being anywhere near City Hall.”

Volunteer crew

In American history, only four recall elections have required as many signatures as this one. Katz said the effort may come down to organization, and that’s where he comes in.

“Our goal is by the end of the day to roll out an app that allows you to find your nearest place to sign the petition,” he said. “Like finding the closest Starbucks or Supercuts.”

At the Town & Country Resort in Mission Valley, people gathered in a ballroom to go over strategies big and small. Rookie volunteers were directed to “area directors,” each one responsible for overseeing petitions in one of 18 geographic areas.

Kay Chiaravalle, for example, oversees Area 10 — Mission Valley.

“I’m a Democrat, but this time I didn’t vote for a Democrat for mayor,” said Chiaravalle, 68, a property manager. “I was not happy with Filner to begin with, but once I heard what was going on, I knew I had to do something.”